What Was The Body Count In Last Night’s ‘Sons Of Anarchy’?

Since it is evident that Kurt Sutter is going to expend as much bloodshed as possible throughout the rest of the season of Sons of Anarchy, going ahead I thought we’d frame these recaps around the body count, since that is clearly what is driving the narrative forward. So let’s break this down by body.

Most of the episode dealt with the fallout from last week’s bloodbath at Diosa. Jax, because he’s Jax and Jax doesn’t really understand what escalation of violence means, thought the best way to handle one bloodbath was to run another bloodbath. Most of last night’s episode involved Jax and SAMCRO plotting their revenge against Henry Lin and the Chinese, which I understand. But man, they just blew right past the whole fact that a lot of the people they had regard for, in addition to a club member (West), had been brutally murdered. There was no time for grieving. Just revenge. I mean, look at these people, smiling and having a good time during a musical montage, only hours after 17 of their friends and business partners were gunned down.

Before they could execute their revenge, however, Nero got involved, after Lin threatened to kill his kid unless he brought Jax to him. Jax and Nero fought, Jax explained to Nero that Lin was behind Tara’s murder, and Nero confronted Gemma about it, and Gemma was like, “Yeah, babe. Bummer about all those dead people. But whaddya gonna do? Some rando Asian guy killed Tara. I could really use a smoke.”

The long and short of Jax’s plan was to use Nero to get all of Lin’s men in one place, then use Barosky’s corrupt pals on the police force to arrest them all, except for Lin, who was going to be left for Jax to murder. Unfortunately for Jax, Unser gave Sheriff Jarry the heads up, and she sent real police over to Stockton to deal with the situation, which means that Jax is now apparently going to have to have Lin killed in prison.

Don’t worry, though. Before the episode ended, SAMCRO did take out a four of Lin’s men, played by these incredibly bad actors.

Barosky also took out a colleague he didn’t like.

Meanwhile, over on the B-plot, Juice’s fate continued to hang in the balance. Out getting the newspaper, he spotted an Asian guy, assumed he was one of Lin’s men and later, when the Asian man entered his motel room, Juice shot and killed him. Turned out, that guy just worked at the motel. That minus two points for Juice, who is now both racist AND late in paying for his motel room. Dude.

With that, the episode’s body count was 6.

Could it be seven? It certainly looked like it for a moment. Gemma was driving Juice out into the middle of nowhere, she was packing a heat in her purse, and had every intention of popping him and leaving him in the desert. But Juice SOMEHOW figured it out (Brainiac saw the gun in her handbag) and turned the tables on Gemma. The episode ended with Juice holding a gun to Gemma’s head and Gemma begging for her life.

Will he kill her? Of course not! He’s Juice. He only kills people when killing them would be a dumb move. Killing Gemma would be the smartest thing he ever did, and Juice doesn’t do smart things. He’ll probably make some deal with her. “I’ll let you live, if you tell Jax the truth. Tell him EVERYTHING.” “Oh sure, honey,” Gemma will say, while taking a drag of her cigarette. “Whatever you say. Let me just hold that gun for you, OK? You just hand it over to Momma. There you go, There you … BLAM.” Juice is dead.

Finally, the C-plot — which had no body count — saw Chibs and Sheriff Jarry forming an uneasy alliance IN THE BEDROOM. The town sheriff sleeping with one of the men who keeps mowing down other men? That just MIGHT cause a conflict in their romantic relationship.

That said, they really are well matched.

Chibs also delivered the best line of the episode:

Jarry: “Do you know why I take the money?”
Chibs: “Because it’s money.”

Ladies and gentlemen, that from the man with a dollar bill tattoo on his chest!

My second favorite line:

Unser: “Any idea, uh, what happened?”

Raboy: “Someone gunned down all our whores.”

That’s compassion!

Also, has anyone else noticed that Jax no longer flares his nostrils? Six seasons of nostril flares, and he decides to quit during the final one. WTF?

was i the only one that noticed that Jax specifically told the mexican guy to watch over his mother before he left her at the whore house and jema ask the head whore to keep him ocupied why she slipped out and then they kill every body there including the mexican and jax never once asked what about his mom or the fact the dead mexican was in the next episode very much a live

@Horatio Cornblower Right, but the quality of said strikes is not in question so much as why he knows MMA striking in the first place. The answer? Because he’s Asian, duh. All Asians know at least one martial art.

Once again one of Jax’s genius plans relies on completely implausible scenarios unfolding. In this case, he’s counting on Lin, a man who showed no hesitation in massacring a ton of innocents in the name of retaliation, not killing Jax and Chibs immediately, and even more implausibly, being able to get Lin to not only buy his bullshit story, but bring him along (unbound) for the ride. In any marginally believable scenario, Jax and Chibs would be executed, or at least take that drive tied up in the trunk.

Lin was clearly a better fighter too, pretty sure that kick on Jax’ leg would have put Jax on the gorund or at least not be able to immediately plant off that leg to throw a haymaker. Plus Lin showed zero defense against Jax’ circular punches yet showed great offensive skills in getting some good hits on him

@Hyrax Lin actually did some decent MMA striking there so I didn’t see any racial aspect. The fact that a hard leg strike, vicious elbow to the head and a solid knee strike did no discernible damage to Jax, that was a little harder to get past.

Oh I remember them alright. Clay was around for about 2 seasons too many half sack was fired cuz he was on drugs so they killed him off opie was the one that I think was effective and unexpected. But let’s talk about characters still around that don’t do a whole lot. Jemma hasn’t been interesting for a while and I adore Katie segal but she hasn’t had much to do for quite some time. I could care less about juice honestly. Unser is virtually immortal despite having terminal cancer. Nero was introduced as a person destined to get back into crime and lose everything which has been teased for two whole seasons. I mean I’m all for a slow boil but this just seems aimless.

Why do people still refer to Charming as “Mayberry” or talk about it like it’s some “aw shucks Gee whiz smalltown” like it’s on the verge of being the center of a gang war?

I’m pretty sure there’s been rapes, bombs, grenades, mass shootings, executions, cops being killed, and kidnappings even before this season started, people like Alvarez and Lin can drop the whole act of “If you don’t do what I say, I’ll turn Charming into a killing field!”

It’s been a complete full blown crime ridden shithole since about season 4.

Lin went right to the leg strikes, and you guys don’t think that was racially motivated? Jesus, just because he didn’t whip out a pair of nunchucks while screaming “Hi-Yaaaaa!” doesn’t mean he wasn’t still playing to a stereotype.

1. SAMCRO is, at most, a dozen strong at any given time, and yet this scuzzy little MC has killed about 5,000 people now, most of them in the middle of the day
2. Remember when Juice was the tech guy on the team? Now he’s the dumbest person in California
3. Why does every character in Charming use the exact same lingo? Using the phrase “Blowback,” “where do you land on this,” calling someone a “gash,” everyone and everything has to be “made whole.” You whole, bro? Yeah, bro, we whole. All the way whole.
4. All in favor of Abel meeting Mr. Mayhem, say “AYE.” Should’ve just left him in Ireland.

Last we saw of her was in the season finale right after Juice dumped some of the evidence that would tie Gemma to Tara’s murder. She’s either a red herring or the person that will bring down Gemma and Juice (assuming he doesn’t off himself soon) for the murders of Tara and Roosevelt and quite possibly the entire MC.

Homeless lady shows up in a reaper hood and robe, face shrouded by shadow. Proceeds to murder all remaining SOA members with a scythe. Hood comes down. Dramatic hamster turn toward the camera. POOF. Disappears in a cloud of brimstone. SHE WAS THE GRIM REAPER ALL ALONG!

Was the Sheriff smoking pot during the episode or was that a cigarette?

Even without the pot she does not act like a cop whatsoever. Irrationally become attached to a member of a biker gang that inexplicably avoids jail time due to terrible police in the town for decades, then continue that trend by forming an emotional connection.

I seriously think the writing sessions are just Sutter throwing darts at random sentences on a board.

Every sentence is: “Write something that doesn’t make any fucking sense”

So will we ever find out what happened to Opie’s kids? Both parents are dead and 1 grnadparent. Is Lyla watching them all? Is that why Sutter wrote off Opie, so he didin’t have to talk about his kids anymore?

@Horatio Cornblower – there was no mark on Jax’s face after Nero socked him there too. There would be some type of bruise or at least some redness in real life! But there was nothing there minutes later when they talked in Barosky’s bakery place.

@JTRO Because those shows have editors that know that just throwing everything that comes out of your fevered imagination at the wall does not make a good show and in fact tends to start really fucking things up after a couple of seasons.

@Mancy well, he is a crack baby (or something like that; remember in season 1 that Tara had to save his life with a complicated operation because Wendy was a druggie while gestating?). So, maybe that actor is putting one over on all of us because he’s playing a kid suffering from a mental handicap due to his mom’s drug use perfectly.

-On this show for such hardened criminals who lie to people constantly, no one can ever realize that they may have been lied to.

“Yeah I’m a murdering sociopath who lies to people constantly, but someone lying to me? That would never happen, no point in even bothering to think about it no matter how implausible”

-Also each character’s own development and motivation changes every week, why bother making Unser seem self righteous this week when he’ll just cow to Wendy or Gemma after Juice doesn’t kill her next week

-Was I the only one rooting for Lin in the fight with him and Jax? Ihope he survives prison comes out and takes care of SAMCRO with Jury.

-In season 1, Jax refers to him as “Uncle Jury”. It’d be cool if he is the one who takes Jax down.

If Jury is literally Jax’s uncle, it would be weird for the dead Indian Hills lackey to be Jury’s kid, because, ya know, it would make sense that Jax might recognize his cousin. So either Jax and Jury aren’t blood, or the dead guy isn’t Jury’s kid, or possibly, both. Of course, I anticipate this being one of about 12 loose threads that Sutter just forgets to tie up, so we’ll probably never know.

I was definitely rooting for Lin to take out Jax in that fight. Also, I still find it kind of mind-boggling that, in a show full of criminal liars and obsessions with proof, absolutely everyone that’s heard it so far has accepted on faith that the Chinese killed Tara just because Gemma said it. I really thought Nero was going to call her out on that bullshit last night (and Unser started to before quickly being silenced by Gemma saying it doesn’t matter who she saw), but for whatever reason everyone seems all too willing to believe it.

I agree with the many sentiments that the child is a bad actor, but then he’s also like, 7. Considering what’s happened to every child actor that’s been good at the age of 7, I’m glad, for his sanity, that he’s not a good actor.

@Horatio Cornblower He’s actually been pretty good about that this season if I recall correctly. Maybe he thinks it makes things play lighter to use ahem “race appropriate” music. Now that’s he going into serious mode, he tones it down.

I love that Unser’s the ONLY one who’s even come close to calling Gemma out for her lie, but Sutter drops it so fucking fast. Remember when Unser realized Gemma was a scheming bitch who lies about anything and everything? Neither does he.

“Who’d you see?”
“What does it matter?”
“Uh, KIND OF A WHOLE FUCKING LOT CONSIDERING HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE DYING, GEMMA!”

Holy shit I forgot about that. Do they not have enough make-up to give Jax a bloody nose or a black eye. Christ by my count Lin landed a good leg kick, a nasty elbow to the head and a knee somewhere on the upper body if not the head. I’m not sure they even had flop sweat on Jax afterwards.

Yeah Gemma, let’s complicate killing Juice even more…Drive out to the middle of no where, hoping he doesnt wake up and if he does make up some bullshit about going to Mexico, when you could have simply went north, stopped and killed him literally ANYWHERE.

“Juice, wake up…the car is making a funny noise.” Pull over, when he gets out shoot him in the back of the head.

Juice has been dumber than 10 hot bags of shit for years now, but at least he pieced together what Gemma was going to do in time to get the upper hand. I fully expect him to do the dumbest thing possible on next week’s episode, allowing Gemma to escape intact and probably better off than when she started on the car ride to “drop off” Juice.

Also, hearing Gemma sniveling and begging for her life was infuriating… That bitch is one of the most worthless fake human beings ever. I really wish Juice was going to kill her nice and slow, but we’re only at episode 6 of 13 so of course she’ll survive some how and continue to screw people over.

As for this show my understanding was that Jax was going to let Lin live while he and the corrupt cops and SAMCRO gunned down Lin’s entire gang in front of him, and only then would Lin be killed. Which by the way is a brilliant plan. I really don’t see how having your gang team up with 5-10 corrupt cops to murder what looked like a dozen Asian gangsters on a dock in broad daylight could ever backfire on anyone. Who the fuck would go along with any of Jax’s plans at this time? Abel with a hammer seems to have his shit together more than his old man.

Speaking of Abel I really like kids but if he gets taken out before this show ends I’m not going to be too upset.

I think if Juice doesn’t kill Gemma I may very well quit this show until the finale. If he shoots her in both legs and leaves her in the desert I would accept that.

Robo-Cop clearly shot that other cop because Robo-Cop was the one who set up the warehouse heist. Classic way to stop an interrogation man; shoot the witness in the head in his store in broad daylight. Again, what could go wrong?

@Horatio Cornblower yeah, fast forward to the scene where SAMCRO is meeting in the room above the ice cream place (I think) about what to do next. It’ll be worth the chuckle you’ll have hearing Jax talk about proof.

@miamidiesel I wasn’t unhappy at all about missing the first part of the show but if Jax spent that time talking about needing proof I may have to go back and watch it. That would be fucking hilarious.

@mjc_24 You could be right; my initial thought was jury. But RC being so quick on the trigger and apparently the only one who had that cop’s cell phone makes me think RC is behind it. Could be both, could be neither, it’ll be whatever Sutter needs to make sense that week.

You’re right about how SAMCRO and the crooked cops were going to gun down Lin’s posse, but I don’t agree with you about Robo-Cop being the one who set up the warehouse heist. I think it’s pretty obvious that Jury from the Indian Hills SOA is behind that.

I loved how Jax was so preoccupied with figuring out what PROOF Lin had that SAMCRO hit his massage parlors and that gun deal. If Sutter were a better writer I’d think that was a clever way of poking fun at Jax’s quest for proof when he was taking down Clay a couple of seasons back, but alas, we both know that at this point Jax’s obsession with proof is just a character flaw.

Also, Jax called their plan against Lin “airtight”, even though it literally had hundreds of gaping holes and required an aggressive suspension of logic and disbelief for anyone to take seriously. I sure hope Sutter is trolling us, otherwise someone needs to send him back to whatever shitty community college creative writing class he came from.

Every single character on this show is dumber than Simple Jack. Including the never-seen forensics people who apparently can’t ever piece together evidence against a moron biker gang that leaves dead bodies EVERYWHERE.

He’s going to do something terrible at some point, right? It would be the most Sutter thing ever for Jax to survive all of this and then get shot (accidentally or maybe he really does want the kid to be evil) by his own kid.

I thought that was one of the only parts of the episode that made any sense. Just drove home the point of how shitty of a mother/grandmother Gemma is. Not that any more proof was needed with how insanely stupid Jax is this season. Mom done learned him well.